Do you belive William Wallace was a true Scottish hero?

Do you? Why?Do you belive William Wallace was a true Scottish hero?
Patriotism was not a strong emotion felt in Scotland at that time. What most men of influence experienced was loyalty to one group of fellow-Scots and antipathy to others.





William Wallace was a follower (and distant family member) of John Balliol, who proclaimed Scotland to be independent from Norman England. On the other extreme Robert Bruce, a Norman knight, and another landowning ';warlord';, swore fealty to Edward 1st of England in return for various promises of advancement and further land.





John Balliol was crowned King of Scots on 17 November 1292 and Wallace joined the entourage as his supporter. Robert Bruce still prevaricated and attempted to organise a political agreement that would allow him to pursue his own aggrandisement under Edward. William Wallace came to a deep distrust of Bruce from that time.





Balliol was deposed by Edward on 12 July 1296 and Robert Bruce confirmed his fealty to Edward in November the same year. The rift between Bruce and Wallace became very wide and coloured every action for them both for years afterwards.





After the deposition, Wallace was declared Guardian of Scotland during the interregnum but resigned after the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Falkirk in 1298. Immediately, Robert Bruce became Guardian, initially with Edward's approval, but then changed his stance towards the English. He saw himself as future King of Scots, and declared war on the English. He was crowned on 25 March 1306. As we all know, he was successful at Bannockburn on 24th June 1314, leading the way to full Scottish independence from England.





During this period, Wallace became a fugutive, was chased all over Scotland, by Robert Bruce as well as the English. He was captured on 5 August 1305 when John de Menteith, a Scottish-Norman knight and a follower of Bruce, betrayed him to the English. He was executed in London for treason on 23 August 1305.





So, it looks as if Wallace was as ambitious as everyone else in his class, in Scotland, at the time. He had some success in battle against the English but powerful fellow-Scots worked against him, and his efforts were wasted as a result. He was a partriot in the sense that he saw and felt himself to be Scottish, not British, but he could not rely upon the support of powerful friend. He misjudged the political realities of Scottish aristocratic allegiances and so was a weak leader in hard times. The House of Bruce went on to rule until 1371, when the House of Stuart took the throne. Wallace's period of leadership was short and largely unsuccessful, but romantic and popularised in poetry and by Hollywood.





It's worth remembering that the Wallace family were not basically Scottish; they had Celtic Welsh origins. He was referred to disparagingly by his enemies as ';that Welsh thief';. Also, neither the Bruces nor the Balliols were Scottish in origin. They were descended from Norman French knights in support of William the Conqueror, who usurped the English throne in 1066. By and large, the Scottish emotion that has been called partiotism was mainly concerned at that time with aristocratic anti-English land-ownership. Only with the arrival of the House of Stuart could it be claimed that Scotland was ruled by a home-grown family - and became monarchs of England as well in 1603Do you belive William Wallace was a true Scottish hero?
I have no thoughts on the matter but if the Scots believe he was a true Scottish hero then he was.
Depends on if you believe the stupid movies or not.


But personally not